The Slough of Despond

No getting away from it--the Trump victory has cast a deep depression over the Cutler/Powers household. A very deep depression...
The initial reaching for comfort ("maybe, he won't turn out too badly") has very quickly given way to utmost pessimism. The names of potential cabinet members are enough to evoke a shudder at their extremist views, and the same goes for the list of potential Supreme Court nominees.
No--there is absolutely no reason to have the slightest glimmer of optimism about the future of this country...and yet, there is some comfort in the fact that more voters voted against him than voted for him: could this at least give him some pause as he considers actual policies? I doubt it. Will facts that he has twisted or distorted in his campaign lead him to modify any actions he had advocated--the wall, abolishing NAFTA, restoring the coal industry, getting out of NATO or the UN, carpet-bombing ISIS, locking up Hilary, abolishing Obamacare, making abortion illegal...and so on. Again, I doubt it.
We see here a central problem with democracy that was also exemplified in the Brexit vote. Does a vote in which one side wins by a small percentage provide a genuine mandate to ignore and ride rough-shod over the views of just a little less than half the population? With Brexit, the referendum was ill-conceived--with a question of a major shift in the status quo there should surely have been a requirement for a qualified majority. In the United States, perhaps the best one might hope for would be some willingness to compromise on policies, recognizing the strength of opposing forces. But that is not going to happen. Winner take all will prevail.
So we are definitely in the Slough of Despond.
                                              
And who will lift us out?